Studs and Duds From Week 1

Old habits may die hard for Campbell. The Titans found and used a tell in Campbell’s game. He tips pass plays by sinking and sliding away from center just before he snaps the ball. This was the case in Tennessee and at various points last year. This puts the offensive line at an disadvantage, as they begin their rush as soon as Campbell sinks. The offensive line is put as a disadvantage and this group of offensive lineman aren’t very good to begin with. Correctable, but a very poor habit.

Cooper Carlisle(+0/-8)Overall -8

Carlisle was the worst of the offensive lineman. Even Mario Henderson held his ground in pass protection better. He was blown into the backfield by the bull rush, blitzers just went around him and on more than one occasion Carlisle just blocked the wrong player. In some cases Carlisle would disengage his blocker to help out Langston Walker, leaving his man to pressure Campbell. It would be hard to imagine Daniel Loper or rookie Bruce Campbell doing worse.

Tyvon Branch(+3/-5)Overall -2

Tyvon was directly responsible for 21 of the 38 points the Raiders surrendered Sunday. He bit on the play action pass leaving Nate Washington open for the long touchdown. He also missed a tackle in the hole on Chris Johnson on the 76-yard touchdown run and was fooled on play action again and lost track of the tight end for an easy flip pass touchdown from Vince Young. He happened to make a few plays as well, but it was a horrible game for Branch. One he wishes to soon forget.

Mario Henderson(+0/-3)Overall -3

Most fans were irate when Mario Henderson allowed a strip sack of Jason Campbell in the first quarter. Jacob Ford blew by Henderson who was slow to get off the line of scrimmage. Henderson was lucky to touch the defender down while he complained to officials that Ford was offsides. Reality was Henderson got off the ball slow and the defender got an excellent jump thanks to Campbell’s subtle tell.

In the end, Mario struggled with the speed rush most of the game and didn’t make any good plays to redeem himself. It wasn’t nearly as bad as previously suspected and he improved significantly later in the game.

Langston Walker(+1, -4)Overall -3

He had trouble with speed, was pushed around by the bull rush and consistently allowed the Titans into the backfield. He had one excellent run block that sprung McFadden for a few extra yards, but one decent play is not enough to forgive his transgressions.

Jared Veldheer(+1/-4)Overall -3

When four of the duds are on the offensive line things aren’t going well. A bad snap, two penalties are enough to doom any center. Since Veldheer was playing his first game at center in a long time and it was his first NFL game, he gets a pass. He did do some solid run blocking which was a significant improvement over Samson Satele.

Studs

Richard Seymour(+8/-1)Overall +7

At least the Raiders are getting great play out of their 2011 first-round pick. Seymour was absolutely mashing the excellent Titans offensive line. Seymour was a big reason why the Raiders contained Chris Johnson well early. It come as no surprise that Seymour was held on Chris Johnson’s 76-yard touchdown run. His lone poor play coming when he was blocked out of the hole on Javon Ringer’s 15-yard touchdown.

Darren McFadden(+10/-1)Overall +9

What a great day for Darren McFadden. He use his speed, he stiff armed defenders and made them miss. McFadden even ran over smaller defenders in route to 150 total yards. He dropped an easy dump off pass for Campbell, but had a great day. This is the player the Raiders thought they drafted three years ago.

John Henderson(+4/-1)Overall +3

It gets harder to find studs after the first two, but Henderson was clogging up running lanes on just about every snap he played. A great addition to the Raiders defense should pay dividends as the season progresses.

Stanford Routt(+4/-1)Overall +3

Routt had tight coverage and came up in run support the entire game. He played to expectations for once. The Raiders will be looking for Routt to continue his solid play.

*Each grade is based not upon offense or defensive failure, but upon above or below average plays. Good examples would be a running back breaking a tackle, a lineman getting a big block to spring a player free, a tackle for a loss, missed tackles, poor coverage, bad reads, etc.